Spinnova's change negotiations concluded with more moderate reductions than initially estimated

Translation: Original published in Finnish on 6/10/2025 at 7:45 am EEST.

Spinnova's strategic choices going forward are key for the company's share. Based on the fairly large organization remaining with the company, we believe it is possible that the company will continue to commercialize its technology mainly on its own. We have been expecting Spinnova to announce its strategy before the summer holidays.  

The company estimates to achieve savings of 1.6 MEUR through the reductions

Spinnova announced yesterday that the company's change negotiations ended on June 4 and that the personnel were informed of the changes yesterday. As a result of the negotiations, Spinnova will permanently reduce 10 positions. Spinnova announced on April 11, 2025, that it would initiate change negotiations to adapt its organization to the company's current stage of development and changes in the operating environment. 

The change negotiations covered all 56 of Spinnova's permanent employees, excluding top management. At the start of the negotiations, the company estimated that the planned changes could lead to a permanent reduction need of a maximum of 35 positions. 

The company estimates that it will achieve annual savings of around 1.6 MEUR in personnel expenses. Spinnova has not provided financial guidance for 2025.

The initiation of the change negotiations and the need for reductions are related to Suzano's decision in February to withdraw from Spinnova fiber production investments. We have commented on the company’s situation here and here.

Smaller-than-planned reductions could indicate continued commercialization of the technology on its own

In the change negotiations, the personnel reductions and the corresponding savings achieved were smaller than originally planned (cf. the original savings plan of 2.6 MEUR in personnel costs). Although we believe that certain savings are necessary to conserve the company's cash reserves after Suzano's withdrawal decision and the consequent postponement, at least, of the technology's commercialization, we see the company's strategic choices regarding the continuation of commercialization as more important for the stock.

We estimate that maintaining a relatively large own organization even after the change negotiations could indicate that the company is still aiming to commercialize its technology to a significant extent on its own. In our view, key questions related to this strategic choice would be finding customers willing to invest and the sufficiency of financing. We have been expecting Spinnova to announce its strategy before the summer holidays. However, we estimate that the company also needs to finalize the change negotiations underway at Woodspin, which is 50% owned by Spinnova and Suzano, and other matters related to the dismantling of the Suzano cooperation before the new strategy is confirmed.